The Australian Christian Lobby today backed calls from federal Nationals backbenchers for fairer tax deal for stay-at-home parents in next month’s budget.

Nationals Senators Matt Canavan, Bridget McKenzie, Barry O’Sullivan and John Williams are calling on the government to allow income splitting for single income families who currently pay $10,000 a year more tax than double income families earning the same amount.

ACL Managing Director Lyle Shelton said “the tax system should not penalise parents who wish to work unpaid in the home, particularly when children are young.

”We need to stop favouring dual income families with twice the tax-free threshold compared to single income families.

“Stay-at-home parents also ease the burden on Australia’s child care system by not accessing the $7 Billion available in childcare subsidies.”

Mr Shelton said he was surprised to learn that more than half of the OECD countries allow some form of income splitting or income sharing arrangements for parents.

Senator Matt Canavan is one of the parliamentarians leading the push for a fairer tax system for families and has 720 signatures on a petition online.